We are down to the final 3! I am glad that we are finally rid of Ben. I think Paula is a good bet because she hasn’t been a problem but has been consistently good. But Ramsay has shocked me before. There was a promise of a treat and the preview alluded to people. Having watched all the other seasons I am predicting it is family or loved ones but I have been wrong before (I just don’t think I am now;).

And I was right!!! Not one of them seemed to have a spouse. Danny had a girlfriend but hmm… I guess it does make sense if you are going to be willing to pick you life up and move it. Now I predict that they will cook for them and the family will determine the winner. But that is just a guess.

Next morning and it is challenge time. They have to serve lunch to 100 “distinguished” customers. They each have 90 minutes to cook 100 portions of a lunch dish (tasting portions). Andrea was freaking a bit. The guests were chefs from good restaurants in California, all Zagat rated. I recognized quite a few chefs and restaurant names. Our final 3 looked as if they might wet themselves and I don’t blame them. 76% of the chefs disliked Danny’s dish. Over 76% chose Paula as the best!

Paula is getting the full Hollywood treatment and a surprise to come the next day. The punishment is in 2 parts. They have to clean up the dining room and reset it for the next day. The other part is doing the laundry and starching up everything. Danny is taking this lose really hard. The fun part of Paula’s win is that Jean Phillipe went with her. The other part of Paula’s reward was going to Good Day LA. Then Andrea and Danny got to clean all the screens in the dining room (which conveniently had Good Day LA on it;) and the floors.

Tonight is the final service before the finale so they are all going to take a turn on the pass. Paula seemed petrified as she took the pass. She failed Ramsay’s first test of the wrong puree but she caught Scott’s attempted switch out on the soup. She seemed to recover from her start and did ok. Then is was Danny’s turn. He also seemed to stumble at the very beginning. Danny didn’t catch the order test and he was putting apps on the wrong plates. Danny also didn’t catch the potato problems. He did seem to hit a stride. Andrea stepped up for her turn and didn’t seem to have any problems finding her assertive side. But Andrea didn’t spot the fact that Scott switched out dory with halibut. Then she seemed to go a little to far on the assertiveness. Scott was cussing all ways to Wednesday and it was not going well when he said he was going to punch her in the face. Overall the service was a success. We see such a small snippet of service, we have no idea who has done best on the pass.

Ramsay sent them back to the dorm for each of them to figure out who they think shouldn’t be in the finale. Danny picked Andrea and Andrea picked Danny. Paula picked Andrea. Ramsay picked Paula and Danny for the Finale.

I agree with his choice! I am looking forward to next week’s finale. But if Paula remains consistent I think she will win.

Sorry for the delay but I have been out of town! But lets get to it! Hell’s Kitchen is down to the final 4. Will Andrea go home or will Ben screw it up even more?

So Gordon Ramsay did the taste and make challenge. They all had to recreate Ramsay’s Fish Stew. Danny won but was really close to Paula. The thing that made the difference is that Paula used water as the base instead of fish stock.

The punishment is polishing crystal and silverware, cleaning the carpets and prepping the kitchen for that night’s service. Danny got to ride in a biplanes with Ramsay.

All through the punishment Andrea is seeming really beaten down. But my question.. Is she really or is it a ploy? Ramsay gave all of them sets of cookware out of his line before service also. Then Ramsay told them that they all were starting with clean slates. Then service started.

Ben was calling out the wrong order pretty quickly. But the first apps went out well. Ramsay was really cheering them on and then Ben had a little hiccup. Paula was being a bit slow. Danny was also a bit slow on the garnish. Andrea seemed to be rocking out the meat station. There was a marriage proposal in the dining room and things were going well over all. We get close to the end of service and Andrea can’t find 2 wellingtons. So Danny and Paula go and make 2 wellingtons from scratch (roll it in pastry etc).

Ramsay was mad that they didn’t perform 100% the whole time. He sent them all back to the dorms to come up with the person to be on the block. Ben says that Andrea should go because he is many levels above her and has run a big kitchen. Andrea said that Ben should be up. Danny also said that Andrea should go and said that she didn’t have enough experience. Paula says that ever station that Ben has been on he has had problems. Ben said that it is because he isn’t a line cook. They couldn’t come to a consensus. So Ramsay calls both Ben and Andrea to the front. Ramsay chose to send Ben home.

Finally!

And then there was 3….

So here we meet again. According to the previews, Ramsay is going to close Hell’s Kitchen but I think that will all be short lived and we will be back to business as usual. But we shall see.

So Ramsay tells them he is shutting down Hell’s Kitchen but they are going to Borgata in Atlantic City so they can get inspired. I knew it!!! So they arrive there and are greeted by the “Borgata Babes” (ug). I do have to say that it was an impressive place. They have all the big chefs and nice stores. They got to look about the place and relax. I have a feeling that there is a challenge coming.

They all go to have dinner with the higher ups in the food aspects of Borgata. Robert go up and left a few minutes in. He started to have chest pains and went to the hospital. What bothers me is not one of them got up to go see why he left or if he was coming back. Now he didn’t make a big deal out of it or say anything but still. If I was eating with anyone and they just dissapeared from the room, I would definitely go check in on him. Robert had to stay over night in the hospital. After a couple of days he got to come back to Hell’s Kitchen but he wasn’t all better. He has pericarditus and so he wasn’t going to continue.

Now that they are back in the thick of it. The challenge is to make a signature dish that could be on their menu at the Borgata. Ben tells the camera that his dish is above and beyond anything that is currently being done at the Borgata. What a punk! Everyone’s seemed pretty good except Ben’s. He made a dish where he cut off the prawn from the tail and then put the tail on the plate and not the prawn. Andrea won the challenge and immunity. Everyone seemed to think that Andrea was next to go so everyone is a bit annoyed.

And then service began. Andrea got scallops back on the first table. Ben was having a hard time keeping up with the orders and gave Ramsay cold puree. Andrea was slow on the fish and she was kind of dragging Paula down.Ramsay found out that Andrea wasn’t cooking on High. Ramsay said not to wait for Andrea. Ben kept messing up the garnish by not following what orders where working and was actually doing them wrong. Then Ramsay tossed him. So Ben went and collected himself. Andrea sent out a raw salmon. Ben seemed to get better after his break. But Andrea was turning out more raw fish unless it was tuna and she was burning it. Danny and Paula seemed to both be having a real decent service.

He told them to go upstairs and figure out which 2 should be up for elimination. He didn’t say they were getting eliminated, I wonder if no one is going to get eliminated because Robert went home. Paula and Ben got nominated. Ben said he should stay because he has never given up and tries to better himself. Paula said she should stay because she has always been a solid performer. Then Ramsay told Paula to get be in line and called Andrea up. He went through everthing wrong with Andrea but said she was still safe because he was a man of his word. He kept Ben because Andrea was worse and since she was staying he was too.

So who will leave next week? Ben or Andrea? Both of them still think they can win.

Sorry it has taken so long to put this up. I had to go out of town this last week and then again for Easter. It can really put a cramp in the blogging;). I am wondering if the Red Team is going to flow a little more smoothly now that Carol is gone. Let’s see!

Ramsay starts off the day asking who the weakest chef on each team was. Paula was asked and said Andrea while Danny was asked and said Ben. So Ramsay called them both up and asked why they should stay.He told them to take off their jackets….because they were part of the finale 6 (so they can get the black coats, duh). That leads into the 1 individual challenge. They each get 14 ingredients and they have to each make a dish using them all. Ben won the challenge because he was the only person who actually cooked the drumstick off the chicken. So he picks Robert to go with him and Ramsay to San Francisco. Everyone gets to do delivery day. Giovanni just kind of gave up on the punishment and while he didn’t completely quit he was just futzing about. Of course, at least one delivery was short or so they thought;).

It is going to be interesting to see how they all work together in 1 kitchen. Ben’s chicken dish is also going to be on the menu. Out the shoot Giovanni was opening the over and Robert turned out rubbery scallops. Giovanni had to redo chicken because the leg was bloody. Giovanni said that he wasn’t familiar with chicken. Huh? Andrea was just having issues. She was starting stuff to early and then not listening to the tickets. They told her again and when she still didn’t know, Ramsay kicked her out the front. JP was talking her into going back. She told Ramsay what was going and he let her back in. When Giovanni messed up the chicken (again) Ramsay yelled at him. Then Giovanni yelled back that he wasn’t the bad name. So Ben gets on the station to help Giovanni and then Ben messed it up too. The over all team work was so off. No one could get the food done together. Then Giovanni had put a hot tray in the cold frig and then it burned Robert (bad).

Paula was told to put up 2. She put up Giovanni and Andrea. Ramsay sent Giovanni. That wasn’t surprising. He could do well sometimes but he just wasn’t consistent. But I do think that Ramsay is gunning for Andrea and possibly Ben.

Then Ramsay did call them all back into the dining room. He is shutting down “Hell’s Kitchen”. I am wondering what that is going to mean.

As we are at the final 5 I am interested to see what happens. See you later this week!

Let me start off by saying how happy I am that American Idol is no longer leading into Hell’s Kitchen. After last week there are going to be some angry women.

We start a new day with a challenge. The challenge is to make 1 crab dish each. Then they have to decide which 1 dish they will put up as a team for Ramsay to taste. Ben feels pretty cocky about his sauce while they are all still cooking. Paula asks Ramsay to find a chinoise for them. That didn’t go over well. The red team put up Andrea’s dish even though Carol didn’t think Ramsay would want the shell on the plate. Ramsay said it was bland. Ben’s dish is what the blue team put up and Ben did a long dissertation. Ramsay didn’t like it. So Ramsay called for Paula and Danny’s dishes. He liked both of them. Then Ramsay wanted to know why those dishes didn’t go up first. In the end the blue team was declared the winner. The red team has to wonder that if they would have put up Paula’s dish against Ben if they would have won. The punishment it cleaning the dorm and clean the crabs for the next night’s crabs. The blue team won a day at Santa Monica. The guys got to race about on Segways.

This service each team is designing their own menus with 3 apps, 3 entrees, and 3 desserts. So they go off and make their menus that were weirdly similar. Ben came up with this poached halibut with pomme fondont(?). Robert is telling the camera how crazy that is and then says it sounds great to his team. The red team starts with bland carpaccio and the blue with salty soup. Then the person with the carpaccio came back and whistled at Ramsay, needless to say she got told off. There is always 1 in every season. Come to find out, Carole didn’t cook her French potato gratin (isn’t that redundant?) as a dish before service so they aren’t cooking up. Then she tried to blame Andrea and Ramsay wasn’t having it. The red team had to come up with something to replace the dish. Then Ben’s pomme fondont wasn’t really a pomme fondont and Ramsay made them do something else. Then the blue team’s meat was cut weird and it came out that Ben cut them. Then Carole couldn’t get things medium instead of rare. Ramsay shut it all off.

Ramsay had customer cards to help him decide a winner. On the entrees the red team definitely won. Danny alone was to decide 1 to eliminate. Andrea was a little dissapointed that they didn’t lose because they would have put up Carole. I think that Ben should go. He has the knowledge but apparently can’t apply it. Danny nominated Ben. I think it is the right call because Ramsay yells at him the whole time. But Ramsay did want to hear from both of them. Ben says he has leadership and Ramsay wanted to know if it was leadership that cut the meat. Ramsay said he was kicking out the person who sabotaged their team and gave up. It was Carole.

So now we are down to 6. I wonder if this is the point they become the black team.

So Ramsay really lost it on J last week and tossed him out. So who will he toss out before elimination? I agree with LA that Ramsay doesn’t see what happens behind the scenes because if he did Lacey might not still be there.

So Ramsay plays a little trick on everyone. He says he is making a steak and scallop tar-tar and then asks them to taste it and tell him what they think. Now there was tuna instead of steak and sea bass instead of scallop. Everyone just says how great the scallops and beef were. So the challenge is the taste test. LA chose to sit out because they had to even out the teams. This is always fun. Andrea thought that filet mignon was liver and Romaine was celery. Robert thought that turnip was cream of broccoli? Giovanni thought that lobster was egg yolk and Robert thought it was mushroom. Carole did pretty well. Paula and Danny got Minestrone soup and had to guess the 10 ingredients. In the end the red beat blue 8 to 7. The prize is the photo shoot in TV Guide. The blue team has to make lunch and wait on the red during the photo shoot. They also have to prep both kitchens for service. Lacey is such a problem. I am really curious to see what the kitchens are running short on.

So the kitchen opens and they have actors in the dining room. Paula gets her first risotto wrong and Robert is made that Ramsay told Ben to help him. Carole was struggling in the meat station. Lacey was completely lost on the blue’s meat station. So they started telling her each little thing to do. She was lost and said she couldn’t cook meat then Ramsay tossed her out. Ramsay went and talked to her and let her back in. Then Robert split his pants and didn’t even blink. While Lacey said she was lost Carole said the complete opposite. But Carole was just as lost. Then Ramsay ended up tossing Lacey out again. This time he took her jacket and told her to say goodbye. Back on the red side, Carole was just floundering. The 3 guys on the blue team pulled it all together but the red team got shut down with 5 people and without finishing service.

So the blue team won and the red team was set to get a consensus to pick 2 who should be leaving. I don’t think he is throwing anyone out. They couldn’t come up with an actual consensus. But in the end Paula said it was Carole and LA. Ramsay wanted to know who the other one under debate was. So he called LA, Ca role, and Andrea up. Ramsay did end up throwing LA out.

So we got rid of 2 this week. Let’s see who can cut it.

I wonder if Carole is going to make it another week. Or if Jay will be the one to go. Let’s find out!

It looks like we are going with Tapas this week. The chefs are trying Ramsay’s salmon based tapas. Each team had to create 5 small plates from leftovers. They had 20 minutes to make them. But first Ramsay moved Giovani over to the red team. Lacey doesn’t have any ideas so someone had to give her one. The red tie ended up winning but just a little. The punishment has to set up both kitchens for service that night. The red team got to go to the horseraces as a reward. Lacey just can’t figure out what she is supposed to do. She is totally going to be put up if the blue looses. She feels that people are respecting her but then she asks what to do. She threatened to leave again. They said go if you need to go and she went. What really got me is when she was talking about how she is treated like a donkey and then she is supposed to help them. “Help them”?!?!?! Isn’t she doing it for herself? She came back but…

Then we open. The rice that Jay made for everyone was mush so they had to start over on the rice. Then Jay and LA just seemed to be sleepwalking. Jay finally screwed up to the point that Ramsay tossed him. Then Jay left, he really packed up and left. Then Ramsay tried to help the blue team reorganize. Giovanni has really become a leader in the red team. He is outside the girl’s bickering so I think he is taken more seriously. It seems Ramsay has it in for Ben next. Paula was getting props from Ramsay with “the best Wellington ever served at Hell’s Kitchen”. Now Ben can’t seem to get a Wellington right. Ramsay said he was aiming for Ben because he is next to go. I think Carole may take a swing at Andrea in the next week or two.

The blue team got told to go upstairs and each of them had to figure out who was the 1 person they didn’t want on their team. While Ben did mess up, Lacey isn’t a team player. I notice that Ramsay didn’t say pick someone to leave. I am figuring a team shake up especially since Jay left. All the guys voted against Lacey and Lacey voted for Robert. Ramsay called Lacey and Ben to the front. They both got told to get back in line. Nothing changed at all.

So here we meet again for another interesting episode of Hell’s Kitchen. It is almost a catharsis to watch Ramsay loose it. It seems to calm me a bit;).

First off, Idol went 5 minutes into the show. It better not cut off on my Tivo before the end! I am stoked to see how Lacey being on the men’s team works out.

They got taken to an Asian Market. They have 25 minutes and $100 to get everything they need to make 3 Asian fusion dishes. The Red team seemed to form a plan but the Blue were running around a little crazy. The Red team seems to be getting a little sick of Andrea’s controlling ways. Then they had 1 hour to make the food. The editor in chief of Epicurious.com was helping judge this quick challenge with the winners being on the site. So the girls chicken dish was dry. Dry chicken kills me!!! The girls won over all!

The girls are getting an Asian day of surprises. The blue team gets to make fortune cookies and decorate the restaurant with origami. Lacey is ready to lose it. Lacey may have been the biggest punishment the guys will ever get. The girls got to see Jean Phillipe and Ramsay in the blow up sumo wrestler suits. It was hilarious! Apparently Lacey had the origami thing down and the red team got blasted doing a saki tasting.

I think if the girls can minimize the Colleen impact, they can dominate service. Paula’s tuna dish from the challenge made it onto the menu. Giovanni and LA both started off well with the appetizers. Lacey seems to be running the blue kitchen and it is all going well. Jay wasn’t on top of his Wellington but Andrea kept burning them and hiding them. When Ramsay found them he was mad. Ramsay made Robert mad by calling him Bobby. Then Ramsay found all the food Robert had been throwing away and Robert wouldn’t look him in the eye. Ramsay sends Robert out and then gives him a strong talking to. Robert goes from “I want to make you proud” to “Bleep you”. Andrea couldn’t seem figure out how long she needed and was just a mess. Then Jay was just blowing the meat. He forgot an order. Then red team sent out a raw dessert. Then as Jean Phillipe walks up with something else to bring back Ramsay just shut it all down.

As they line up Ramsay asks why Robert won’t look him in the eye and Robert said it was something he wanted to tell him in private. Giovanni and LA both were congratulated on how well they did and then they had to nominate 1 person each. Then Ramsay and Robert had a talk about how Ramsay calling him Bobby caused him to flash back to his bad father. Ramsay apologized and wished he would have told him earlier.

So LA nominated Andrea because of this service. Giovanni nominated Jay and Ramsay asked if someone else was close. Giovanni said Robert but he was a fraction better.

And then my Tivo stopped.

Both nominees made their pleas and thing Ramsay sent them back in line and called Colleen out. He said she had 5 bad services but she had fight. And thing he sent her home. I think that was totally the right call.

I wonder how long Seth is going to make it because that team hates him. Also how did Colleen and Lacey even get on the show?

So Ramsay walks in and asks each team who the best are. Some of them are surprised when a couple say that they are. Why? If you have ever seen Ramsay, he only wants the people who think that they are the best.

Their challenge is to open for breakfast in 30 minutes. They are serving a bunch of kids. Each kitchen serves 50 kids and the first to serve them all wins. The red was serving the cheerleaders and the blue was serving the football players.

Colleen got into the cheerleading spirit by cheering instead of cooking. Koi said she would take pancakes because she isn’t good at breakfast. Pancakes??? That is something you want someone who is experienced to do. Seth seemed to have a hard time keeping up with the scrambled eggs. The girls finally won one!!! This puts an even bigger target on Seth’s back. The guys got to clean the dining room and both kitchens. Then they had to prep both kitchens for service that night. The girls get a day of pampering poolside. Before punishment the boys went back to the dorm and started fighting. Yea, that’ll help.

Then we get to service. The prep wasn’t finished when the girls got there. So when the orders came in the guys didn’t have the water seasoned or boiling for the appetizers. Now on the girls side, Koi tried to get ahead by dropping food early. Then the guys never got the girls’ sauced prepped so they had to wait. Andrea took control of the red kitchen and things started going out. It took the guys 2 attempts to get the red kitchen’s sauce done (Ben ruined the first one and Danny re-did it). Then the blue kitchen sent out salad with the butt of the lettuce (I call it the core;). Then Ben messed up the lamb. Colleen and LA are not getting along on the meat station. Danny had issues with the garnish and that was after he said he was the best. Nothing was really going well and Ramsay ended up losing it. There was no winner and both teams must nominate 2 people for nomination.

The guys nominated Seth and Ben. Lacey said the girls named Colleen and Lacey. So Ramsay asked her if there was anyone worse that night and she said Koi. Ramsay said that Ben rushed around to much but he was staying. In the end he sent Seth home. Then Ramsay moved Lacey over to the men’s team and they don’t seem happy.

This is going to start getting interesting!